Leandro Barbosa

Leandro Mateus Barbosa (short: Leandrinho; born November 28, 1982 in São Paulo) is a Brazilian professional basketball player who is active in the NBA since 2003. He is 1.91 m tall and is mostly used on the position of the shooting guards, but can also play as a point guard.

Career

Association

Barbosa started his professional career with the Brazilian second division club Palmeiras. In January 2001, he then moved to the first league to Bauru Tilibra, where he was honored in his first full season as the best rookie of the year. 2002/ 03 he was already the second best scorer in the league.

Barbosa was in the 2003 Draft to select 28 out of the San Antonio Spurs, but immediately transferred further to the Phoenix Suns. There he was, especially after the marches by Stephon Marbury and Penny Hardaway during his first season quite a lot of playing time and ran regularly in the starting five on what he justified with solid performances.

Since the change of Steve Nash and Quentin Richardson 2004 to the Suns Barbosa but could not prevail as master players. Raja Bell replaced Richardson in 2005 as a starter at the shooting guard position, but Barbosa increased to an average of 27.9 minutes operating time and 13.1 points scored. In 2007 he was elected with big lead at the best substitute of the season. Although Barbosa aground in only 18 of his 80 season games from the start, he scored an average of 18.1 points and 4.0 assists per game. In 2010 he reached the Western Conference Finals with the Suns.

Then moved Barbosa to the Toronto Raptors. In the course of the lockout in 2011 signed a contract with Flamengo in Rio de Janeiro. After the end of the lockout, he returned to the Toronto Raptors. On 15 March 2012, he was transferred to a second-round draft pick to the Indiana Pacers.

For the 2012/2013 season Barbosa received a new contract with the Pacers and was initially without a club. In October 2012, he finally joined the Boston Celtics. There he was given a contract until 2013. Barbosa on February 11th, tore at a game against the Charlotte Bobcats, the cruciate ligament and falls the rest of the season. On 21 February 2013, and Jason Collins were transferred for Jordan Crawford to the Washington Wizards.

Brazilian national

Barbosa was already at the 2002 World Cup used in Brazil reached the quarterfinals. In the Americas Championship 2005, which ended Brazil as the winner, Barbosa was elected to the All- Tournament team and met alone in the last quarter of the final game 5 litters from beyond the three-point line. After the disappointing preliminary round from the 2006 World Cup Brazil Barbosa led to the America Cup 2007 top scorer as the semi-finals. Two years later, Brazil won in American Championship 2009 title, Barbosa itself was the second best scorer of the tournament. In the 2010 World Cup Barbosa reached the knockout stages with Brazil. After reaching the finals at the America Cup 2011, he took in 2012 for the first time participate in the Olympics.